Pain After Goodbye
by UnneededTilde
Summary: After Link leaves the Kokiri Forest, Saria falls into depression. Link regrets ever leaving, and begins to doubt the destiny of the Hero of Time as his own. Saria X Link. Under revision as of of December.
1. Depression

A green haired girl sat on a bridge just outside of the Kokiri Forest, letting her legs hang over the side.

She sat there, staring blankly into space, her hand to her chin, the warm summer breeze flowing through her hair. She paid it no notice.

The only thing occupying Saria's mind was him: the one whom she loved, the one whom she had grown up loving, the one who had left her so abruptly...

So much had happened that day...

It started off well enough: Link had at last gotten his fairy partner, something which both she and Link had begun to doubt would ever happen. He had then been summoned to speak with the Great Deku Tree. She had thought it be a congratulatory sort of thing, gaining audience with the great spirit being an honor in and of itself.

Before much time had passed since he entered the Deku Tree's Meadow, Link had returned, a grim expression on his face and a glazed look in his eyes. Something terrible had happened, to say the least. The Great Deku Tree, guardian spirit of the forest, had fallen.

Before Saria could even begin to grasp the full gravity of what had just happened, let alone recover from the shock, Link told her he had to leave the forest. No Kokiri had ever left their forest; they had been raised believing that they would die if they ever were to, losing the blessing of protection the forest's magic granted the children of the Deku Tree.

It wasn't until after he left that she realized how much she would miss him, how much she worried about him, how much she loved him...

A small tear ran down her face as she remembered their time spent together, nearly the entirety of their lives. The way he smiled, the way he laughed, how warm she felt when she was near him… They seldom left each other's company.

The warmth had gone completely from her body; even this unusually humid, sunny day couldn't make her feel any warmer on the inside. She felt very little but hollow, hollow and cold... A piece of her very being was missing, Link had left. Perhaps permanently.

She slowly began to lean to her side until she lay on the bridge, wrapping her arms around her, curling into a fetal position.

She wept softly, tears running down her face. These tears brought no relief to her aching heart, only serving to burn her face as they flowed from her tightly closed eyes. These tears simply fell.

She slowly began to fall into sleep. A cold, unrestful sleep.

* * *

A/N: A bit of an update! After nearly three years, I've finally dusted this poor thing off.

First thing on my to-do list: rewrite the thing in it's entirety.

Why? Because I hated it. The idea was there, if only in my mind alone, but the writing wasn't. I loathe every awkwardly-worded sentence and haphazard paragraph.

As always, reviews aren't just appreciated; they're necessary to drive me to write anything at all. With no feedback, I have no fuel for writing.

Even if you have nothing but bad things to say about my fic, myself or anything else pertaining to it I encourage you to do so! Improvement drives me!

Expect more updates in the coming months.


	2. Avoiding Painful Thoughts

Link lay on the parched grass of Hyrule Field, the past day's events still swirling in his mind. Where to start... He had at last gotten a fairy partner, slain a demonic beast, witnessed the death of a god, left his only home, met the princess of Hyrule, and set off on a quest he didn't want any part of.

He sighed, clutching the tiny orange ocarina given to him by his only friend. He began to think of what lay ahead of him.

Death Mountain was to the east, and Zora's Domain to the south. Apparently he was to go to each place and retrieve the great artifacts that lay within, the "Spiritual Stones".

He sighed again, entertaining the thought of just giving the stone of the forest to Zelda, and telling her to find someone else to retrieve the other two.

He smiled slightly at the prospect of being able to return to the forest, but he knew he couldn't. He had been told by the Great Deku Tree himself to meet the princess.

After multiple painful attempts to enter the castle, only to be thrown out by it's guards, he managed to sneak in. He met the Princess Zelda, as the Deku Tree had asked of him, and she told him he's some sort of great hero. And what great task fell before this "Hero"? He needed to obtain the Spiritual Stones in order to put a stop to, from what little Link could gather, some corrupt politician. Before he could object, he was again sent out of the castle...

This, to Link, made about as much sense as anything else to have happened in the last day: none. The world outside of the forest made his head hurt, anger and frustration only beginning to describe what he felt.

Trying to find something else to think of, he looked back down to the ocarina, his thoughts returning to his friend, Saria. He had left her without a proper goodbye… Rather, she had said goodbye to him, given him her most cherished possession, and he ran away from her without saying a word.

A weight of guilt now hit his shoulders; he had run to avoid a long, no doubt painful goodbye. What he now felt was worse...

She must hate me for that...

He felt sick to his stomach, his mind repeatedly playing the moment in his head, his frustration with his so-called destiny being replaced by frustration with himself.

He frowned. It wasn't doing him any good, but his mind continued to explore every painful detail of that moment. He tried to shake it off, knowing that he couldn't change what had already happened.

He looked to Death Mountain, and began walking towards it in hopes of getting the thoughts out of his mind.

* * *

A.N. :

I must sincerely thank each of the reviewers to have thus far provided their thoughts... As well as apologize for the slow-going of my little "Updates". I originally had four chapters written for this fic, what seems like ages ago, three of which were actually posted. Having gained a small amount of taste over the years, however, I am down to two; one of which I meant to remove from the site for a bit of polishing.

In my stupidity, however, it never was, so this update probably comes off as cheap. :(

But don't think this is all I've done so far: this is just what I'm comfortable enough to show. It's rather slow going, and I doubt I'll ever be entirely satisfied with what I can put down, but chapter three is coming. Eventually.


End file.
